1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to golf clubs, and in particular, to a club having an asymmetric handle.
2. Description of Related Art
A high degree of skill and accuracy is required to successfully swing a golf club. Much has been written about the proper method of holding the handle of a golf club. The finger positions must be precise to avoid misalignments that can cause a golf ball to follow an undesirable trajectory. Conventional round golf club handles do not assist the golfer in determining where to position the palms and fingers in order to permit an efficient and powerful arm, shoulder and body movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,403 shows a putter having a flat shaft supporting a flat handle with rounded corners. The handle, shaft and putter head all lie in the same plane. This design is focused on improving putting and therefore has specialized features that are inappropriate for a club designed to hit a ball into flight. The face of the putter head is vertical and the putter handle has spherical depressions on both sides of the handle designed to position the "node" of the forefinger. This arrangement produces a grip that is looser and quite different from the grip appropriate for a club used to drive a ball into flight.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,677,099 shows a handle for a driver. The cross-section of the handle is semi-elliptical with a flat surface facing toward the club head. This shape feels essentially cylindrical in the back and flat in the front and does not provide a feel appropriate for training a golfer to hold a club correctly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,152 is another handle for a putter. The handle has an elliptical perimeter truncated by a flat surface. This handle is designed to facilitate a radically different method of gripping the putter handle with the hands spaced at opposite ends of the handle. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,459,426 and 4,067,573 also show putters with handles having radically different shapes designed to allow the golfer to hold the handle with the hands in a "praying" position. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,880,240; 5,037,103; and 5,127,650 for other equipment designed to dramatically alter the way in which a putter is swung.
See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,109,653 showing a putter handle having a flat surface spaced from the central axis of the handle and shaft. There is no teaching of a handle shape useful for teaching the proper grip and feel for a golf club used to place a ball into flight.
Numerous references have described a golf club handle having a surface sculpted to fit the shape of a golfer's hand. These references approximately balance the mass of the handle around a central axis. Thus these references attempt simply to sculpt the generally rounded handle by filling the natural spaces between the hand and the cylindrical handle. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,436,579; 1,638,454; 2,046,191; 2,628,100; 4,376,536; 4,511,147; and 5,398,930.
Other golf club handles are shaped as polygonal prism such as the rectangular prism of U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,860, or the pentagonal prism of U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,191. These patents are designed simply to provide flat surfaces to either change the grip or provide physical cues. However, these references again tend to have balanced mass with the mass located to the right and left being approximately the same as the mass to the front and back.
See also Design patent U.S. Pat. No. 194,471 for a golf club handle having a portion of its central axis skewed to the shaft axis. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,639,864; 2,050,554; 3,837,647; 4,189,144; 5,253,868; 5,306,003; and 5,316,299.